


Why Not?

by Nikoleta



Category: Real Person Fiction
Genre: Friendship, Gen, No Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-22
Updated: 2014-01-22
Packaged: 2018-01-09 15:50:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1147818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikoleta/pseuds/Nikoleta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So I told myself, “If I could recommend a soundtrack to Tom Hiddleston, it’d be the ‘We Bought a Zoo’ soundtrack by Jonsi” and I imagined how that would play out and voila I made a 1,000+ words fic just about that.</p><p>If you've watched We Bought a Zoo, you’d understand this better. You can still read it even if you haven’t though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why Not?

It’s late. I’m in a well-lit coffee shop, tears in my eyes, a cup in my hand. I sniff, and take a huge gulp, to just drown myself in the moment when the soft bitter taste of the liquid hits the back of my throat, burning it smoothly. It’d been a long day, full of shouting, and crying, and just a blur of a thousand events flew around my head, making me dizzy. I could feel myself pushing it all in, trying to keep them hidden.

But the fact that no one cared didn’t help. I ran away, from them, from my demons, and I wish I could run away from myself. I did what I have never done for a long time – I listened to that soundtrack.

That soundtrack that changed me 5 years and 3 months ago. I wiped my tears, and sniffed as I took out my headphones. It’d been a long time since I’ve listened to it. I reflected back on my life, compared how I was before, 5 years ago, to how I was now. A sob escaped from my lungs, and I try to keep it in. Lips trembling, I took out my old phone, turned it on.

While I waited for the 6-year-old phone to start again, blurry memories of the past came to dance in front of my eyes, clouding my vision, clenching my heart. Then, I played it.

And I closed my eyes. Recent events came crashing down at me like a tidal wave. The shouting, the pain, the people. Their faces, their words, my mistakes… Both good and bad, the experiences and the memories, they collided with each other, flashing in front of my eyes with the beat of the drums in the song, making it almost… beautiful.

Tears formed in my eyes, and I let them. My heart was in my throat. I breathed out, allowing the tension in my body dissipate along with it. The next song played. It was slow, and depressing. There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned with a start, and was shocked to find a man with curly blonde hair, hands on his knees, looking at me curiously.

I’d know that face anywhere.

I gasped and took off my earphones. I blinked for a few times, and shook my head in disbelief. Was this for real?!

“Hello, um… My apologies for disturbing you, ma’am, but…” He slowly, awkwardly, starts walking towards the seat opposite me. He looks at me, almost like he was asking for permission. “May I?”

After a few seconds of silence, I paused the song and stuttered, “O-of course! Um, you don’t..” My voice sounded hoarse from all the crying. I cleared my throat, and repeated, “You don’t happen to be, um… Tom Hiddleston, right? Because-“

“Oh,” He sat down and smiled at me warmly, “so you have heard of me.”

I smiled back. My lips trembled. I inhaled sharply, “Of course I have! I’ve been a fan of yours for so long, I’d have known you anywhere!”

He looks down shyly, then looks up again. He frowned in concern, and folded his arm. He was suddenly very interested in the inticrate design on the table. “Um, I was…” He looked up. Those blue eyes could kill me for being so mesmerizing. “I was on the other side and, well, I saw you crying.”

And for a moment, my heart beated unnaturally. Of all the things that could happen, of all the other ways I could have met him, THIS is how it will turn out?! Me, crying pathetically in a corner and him telling me politely that I should mope elsewhere?! Oh for the love of all that is holy-

“I saw you take out your earphones and start listening to something… and well…” He scratched the back of his neck with his index finger.

I cocked my head, and narrowed my eyes, slightly curious.

He continued slowly, “I saw how you looked while you were listening to it.”

I blinked in surprise, then frowned. “What did you see?”

He stared at me for a while, studying me with those eyes. Flushed, I looked away. For so long, I have seen his face in Tumblr, in my laptop, in my movie posters that I have collected, in the films he was in. For so long, I yearned to meet him. And here he was now. It was odd, really. 5 years ago, if this had happened, I would have completely flipped and died.

5 years ago, I mused. My eyes traveled back to my old phone, my thumb grazing the screen almost endearingly. I always have been so sentimental.

He cleared his throat. I looked up. “May I hear it?”

And never have I smiled so widely in my whole life. For the first time in months, I giggled like the fangirl I’ve always been. I gave my earphones to him. He put it in his ears. I played it from the beginning of the last song.

His eyes widened for a second, then he blinked a few times. He sat up straight and his mouth was slightly open. I smiled up at him. He grinned back, and let out a breathy laugh. I chuckled with him. I knew he’d like it.

And for the whole time the song played, we just alternated between looking at each other, and looking away. My eyes stung. My nose was blocked. My cheeks ached for smiling too much. It’s been a long time since I did that.

He closed his eyes, and inhaled. He put his head back, and completely immersed himself in the song. Like I did 5 years ago. When it was done, he took my hand, and said to me, “Give me more.”

I made him listen to all 18 songs, starting with the first. He liked ‘Sun’ the best.

“It feels like…” he tried to fish for the right words, “that scene in Forrest Gump, where he was running-“

“-alone in the- and the sun was coming up-“

“-I think the sun was setting at that time-“

“-and the cinematography at that time was so beautiful!”

“Yes!” he exclaimed, and chuckled. “This song is filled with… so much hope. Every tone, every-“

“-It just makes you feel really hopeful and optimistic about things, right?!”

The next song played, and we chatted, in awe of the world and all it had to give. We talked about Jonsi, about the movie, about how it all feels. I talked about what I did after I finished downloading the soundtrack, how I wanted it to be memorable. I told him how it all started. And about how it changed me, how it helped me.

He talked about how it felt to run, how that helped him from the stress, and that lead to a conversation about stress and how to avoid it. I complained about how stress is not supposed to be treated as a normal, everyday feeling, but it is. He agreed, and told me how his friends helped. We started talking about our friends, about the things we’ve done, and we had a hearty laugh about it.

And we came around to discussing as to why I was crying in the middle of the night, alone in a coffee shop. I told him everything with a shaking voice. Tears started streaming down my face again. He came closer, and patted me on the back. Somehow, my head ended up being on his shoulder, one earbud in my ear, the other in his. The music helped, as well as the calloused hand gently wiping the tears off my face.

He let go of me, took off the earphones, and let the music play in the background. He looked me in the eye and started telling me things that the media will never hear about. I promised to keep it sealed. Our conversation got deeper after that. It was a jumble of blurting out truths and hesitantly giving the other advice.

The change of songs in the background was a good way to change our topics. We alternated between talking about our problems, and trivias about our lives, and about the song, and how we felt about it.

And that was how, once again, the soundtrack changed my life. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, something big happened to me. I would never have expected that I would be able to talk to my idol like this – so freely, so openly, in a simple coffee shop around the corner, with all the time we wanted. He talked passionately about his job, I talked about my teenage years, when I pined after him so much. He laughed at that.

In the end, I asked him, “Tom, why would an amazing person like you suddenly talk to a person like me all of a sudden?”

He smiled at that. His eyes, his blue, blue eyes, held so much emotion – mischief, contentment, excitement – He looked like a child, really, but more like… like he’s waited for this question for such a long time.

I gaped at him, mouth wide open at the realization of what I asked, but before I could do anything, he replied,

 

..

 

.

 

“Why not?”

 

 

 

-Fin-


End file.
